Syria chemical weapons: used by terrorists, smuggled to Iraq – Russian FM

Russia has evidence that chemical weapons components are used by terrorists in Syria and smuggled into Iraq for possible provocations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday, reports VoR’s Polina Chernitsa.

“We read reports and hear from various sources, semi-official and trustworthy, that some official representatives of a number of the countries of the region surrounding Syria allegedly established contacts and meet regularly with leaders of “Jabhat al-Nusra”and other terrorist groups, and also that those radicals have some components of chemical weapons maybe found in Syria or maybe brought from somewhere, and not just on the Syrian territory, but also that chemical weapons components have been brought to Iraq and that provocations are being prepared there,” Lavrov said at a news conference following talks with Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid.

All that has intensified after the UN Security Council passed a Russian-US-proposed resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons and the Geneva-2 conference, the Russian minister said.

Sponsors of Syrian “opposition” should stop attempts to disrupt Geneva-2

Sponsors of the Syrian “opposition ” should stop attempts to disrupt the Geneva-2 international conference on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

 “There are enough provocateurs, and there will probably be more provocations. What’s important now is that it shouldn’t be them who calls the tune but Russia and the United States as the initiators of Geneva-2 along with the United Nations secretary general to whom a request to that effect was submitted in New York,” Lavrov said.

He urged all the Syrian forces to agree to attend Geneva-2 without preliminary conditions in keeping with Geneva communique signed last June.

Those who sponsor and finance the Syrian “opposition”“should realize their responsibility and stop attempts to disrupt preparations for the conference in a bid to reanimate a military scenario,” Lavrov said.

Syrians are able to agree implementation of Geneva communique

Russia hopes that the Syrians will be able to find common ground on the implementation of the June 30 2012 Geneva Communique, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

He reiterated calls for the Geneva-2 international conference on Syria to be convened in the nearest future.

“We hope that consultations that are now being conducted by the UN secretary general and his special representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, will produce positive results enabling us to organize initial events needed to launch this conference. It’s important that all the Syrian factions be fully represented at the talks for the future agreements to be really stable and lasting,” Lavrov said,according to Voice of Russia, RIA, Interfax.

R.S